T-Mobile US Inc. (TMUS) Begins Rollout Of 600-MHz Spectrum

T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE:T) , the third largest U.S. national wireless operator, has started the deployment of 600-MHz low-band spectrum on its LTE network.

In fact, this company is the world’s first to launch 4G in 600 MHz band. Its first deployment sites are Cheyenne and Wyoming.

Going forward, T-Mobile US is planning to complete the roll out of the spectrum within six months. Also, the company has agreed to invest in broadcast equipment manufacturing capacity, installation resources, help for low-power TV stations and support for TV translator licenses to finish the deployment as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the operator has started the deployment in rural and suburban markets although it has been focused on urban markets in the last few years. This new spectrum is expected to bring 321 million Americans under the company’s LTE coverage.

Nokia (HE:NOKIA) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) have already launched phones that are compatible to the new spectrum band. T-Mobile US is also working with Samsung (KS:005930) and LG to launch phones that supports the spectrum.

Notably, low-band spectrum is essential for wireless operators as the signals can be transmitted over longer distances and through brick-and-mortar walls in cities. Therefore, T-Mobile US believes that its innovative network expansion methodologies will drive substantial consumer growth.

In Apr 2017, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) declared the names of the winning bidders for its latest 600 MHz low-band wireless spectrum auction,popularly known as Incentive Auction. T-Mobile US was one of them. In fact, the auction raised around $19.8 billion from 50 bidders who won nearly 2,800 licenses in total.

Furthermore, the company acquired the largest portion (nearly 45%) of the available spectrums by offering a sum of nearly $8 billion. It won 1,525 licenses and bought around 31 MHz of spectrums in the 600 MHz low-band frequencies.

However, the U.S. telecom giant, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) , took the fourth place after acquiring 23 licenses for a total bid price of over $910 million. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) , the largest U.S. telecom operator, did not bid for the 600 MHz low-band spectrum despite registering itself for the bidding process. Surprisingly, Sprint Corp. (NYSE:S) did not take part in the auction process altogether

Price Performance & Zacks Rank

Shares of T-Mobile UShave dropped 2.19% in the last three months compared with the industry’s growth of 2.52 %. The company currently carries Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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